Most people on planet earth have never heard the sound of silence.  They have never been in a location that was totally devoid of sound created by humans.

If you want a challenge, try to  find a place where you can experience total silence without any sound pollution.  It's nearly impossible.

In this picture, I have set up camp several hundred miles off-road in the Empty Quarter of Arabia.  We are far enough into this remote section of desert that most of the vestiges of humanity are absent except for our campsite.  After the sun goes down, and you lie on your camp cot, you can sometimes hear the sound of silence.  If you hold your breath, you will hear absolutely nothing.  Total silence.  This rare moment doesn't last long because high above your head the faint roar of a distant  aircraft pollutes the silence with sound.

Now that I am back in "uncivilization" working, there is no silence in my life.  No matter where I am, there is noise everywhere.  Nearly every day, I hear boom cars thundering out hundreds of decibels of noise polluting my not so silent world.  They can thank God that I don't have a Predator drone with a load of Hellfire missiles.  I don't know if I could resist the urge to obliterate their megawoofers as they inflict their sonic assault on innocent bystanders.

The sonic assault isn't just on the street.  Since I came back to "uncivilization", I carry ear plugs to church to protect my ears from the "divine decibles" pulsating from the stage at the front of the auditorium.  The music is so loud that I roam through the back of the auditorium trying to find a safe haven where the surround sound can't damage my hearing.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I like the sound of silence.  The only time I ever feel like I am near God is in those infrequent silent moments that are so hard to find.  For me, the only way to hear God's voice of love is to become silent and listen.

My cathedral is out in the desert hundreds of miles from "uncivilization" where I can experience total silence.  When a bird flies by, it's so quiet that I can hear the flutter of his feathers in the wind.  When I'm out there, I'm standing on sacred ground.

As night descends on our campsite, I feel like I am in a cathedral that stretches from horizon to horizon.  I have a front row seat on eternity as I survey the night sky; many of the stars that I'm looking at died out millions of years ago, but their light is only now reaching our side of the milky way galaxy. 

In the silence and splendor of the moment, the trivial events of my life fall away, and the important things come into focus.  And if I listen to the sound of silence, I just might hear God's voice of love.

The Empty Quarter is one of my favorite places on planet earth.  We usually go from 200 to 500 kilometers into the desert on our week long  trips.  Once you are 200 kilometers off-road, the last vestiges of civilization disappear because it requires too much fuel and water to live beyond the 200 kilometer limit.  You are now in a pristine no-mans-land, and your sand dreams actually come true.
 

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